Bitter News, 3-4-09

Valerie Bertinelli is to Jenny Craig what Barack Obama is to Harvard. His Big H Ivy League picks for top positions in his administration have been a ringing endorsement and likely explain the “unprecedented increase in applicants to the school.” [The Crimson]

The dead aren’t necessarily dead weight. Next of kin are ignoring their lack of legal obligation and assuming the “amount due” of their loved ones after being contacted by “empathetic” agents who ask them to pony up for deceased debt. Repeat: Lack of legal obligation! [The New York Times]

All rise. The court finds in clear favor of the judge’s campaign donor. “The Supreme Court struggled yesterday with how to set a standard for when elected judges should recuse themselves when their campaign supporters have business before their courts.” [The Washington Post]

Watch out, BlackBerry, your glaring omission of an App Store has iPhones’ GPS set on invading law firms. [Am Law Daily]

There are some things older in the NY criminal justice system than Law & Order. And a combined 144 years of Manhattan DA are about to leave office. Because not only is 89-year-old Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau not seeking a 10th term, but his predecessor is ankling too. [New York Times]

One law firm “Gal Friday” stood by her men and outlasted 98% of lawyer wives when Esther Blaifeder retired from the same firm she started working for in 1944. [New York Daily News]